Daytrotter Studio (Rock Island, IL)

Apr 27, 2010

Should we find ourselves in confinement, a need to purge and jettison some of the toxins and stress that have been piling up through inattention and over-stimulation, we choose to turn to Benjamin John Power and Andrew Hung of the UK electronic duo Fuck Buttons, for they have been served the answers. It is what we feel, anyway. We feel that "Olympians," the fourth track from their latest album, "Tarot Sport," is a cleanser, a means to diffuse the poisons that are chewing you down to the bone. It's a song that could almost be considered as an unwinding, as a way of stripping away the binding and just leaving you there in a warm climate, standing in your body hair and skin, alone, nothing more - gazing out at a horizon that's no longer extending a disgusting middle finger at you. There's a peace involved with this song, even almost seven minutes into it when some punishing fuzz is thrown onto the fire as another tone, a tone to push you or to wake you up and remind you that there will be pains involved - even in treatment. There's a sense that we're drained and on some of our last legs, but we can feel the blood dripping back into them and if we're given just a few more minutes of continued gazing and continued blanking of all other thoughts and intrusions, we'll be ship-shape - or we'll be convinced that this new shape is improved partially from the last. Power and Hung, with "Tarot Sport," make their pulsing and rave-y songs into something that could resemble the soundtrack for a visit to a Dalai Lama on schrooms, the Lama and the patrons, all tripping. It tends to get the job done though, putting you in a place where your head's not spinning as recklessly any longer. The lights are brighter and stronger, in spots, but then they're gone and a cooler air takes over in the place of illumination. You just close your eyes and lie back in a prone position, cross your arms over your heart and feel oneness with all that's been an irritant and all that's going to be a salve.

Should we find ourselves in confinement, a need to purge and jettison some of the toxins and stress that have been piling up through inattention and over-stimulation, we choose to turn to Benjamin John Power and Andrew Hung of the UK electronic duo Fuck Buttons, for they have been served the answers. It is what we feel, anyway. We feel that "Olympians," the fourth track from their latest album, "Tarot Sport," is a cleanser, a means to diffuse the poisons that are chewing you down to the bone. It's a song that could almost be considered as an unwinding, as a way of stripping away the binding and just leaving you there in a warm climate, standing in your body hair and skin, alone, nothing more - gazing out at a horizon that's no longer extending a disgusting middle finger at you. There's a peace involved with this song, even almost seven minutes into it when some punishing fuzz is thrown onto the fire as another tone, a tone to push you or to wake you up and remind you that there will be pains involved - even in treatment. There's a sense that we're drained and on some of our last legs, but we can feel the blood dripping back into them and if we're given just a few more minutes of continued gazing and continued blanking of all other thoughts and intrusions, we'll be ship-shape - or we'll be convinced that this new shape is improved partially from the last. Power and Hung, with "Tarot Sport," make their pulsing and rave-y songs into something that could resemble the soundtrack for a visit to a Dalai Lama on schrooms, the Lama and the patrons, all tripping. It tends to get the job done though, putting you in a place where your head's not spinning as recklessly any longer. The lights are brighter and stronger, in spots, but then they're gone and a cooler air takes over in the place of illumination. You just close your eyes and lie back in a prone position, cross your arms over your heart and feel oneness with all that's been an irritant and all that's going to be a salve.